Meet The Very Unhappy Genetic Engineer
by LivinJgrl123
Summary: *Two-shot* Nadia's not happy to see this General on her ship. She can't decide, though, if she wants him dead, or if she wants him gone. Preferably the latter, if it means she gets to get away from him alive.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer... ****Oh Dear Oh Dear ohdearohdearohdearohdear... ****please don't hate me pleasedon'thatemepleasedon'thateme for this BUT IM NOT EVEN SORRY but ohdearohdearohdearohdearohdearohdear... my excuse for this is that the actress Antje played Nadia AND Faora and I just had to and she's one of my new favorites and I loved Zod and by the way I haven't seen either movies in like forever so dont hate me if anything seems ooc and I liked Pandorum but oh dear oh dear ohdearohdearohdearohdear...**

* * *

Nadia is openly gawking a Zod. Her mouth is open, and her eyes are wide with incredulity. Her fists are clenching and un-clenching, and she's beginning to think that letting these aliens onto the ship was a very bad idea - and it wasn't even hers.

Of course, the captain didn't think so, and the commanding officers are somewhere else. For some reason, these aliens (they're not humans; they _look_ like humans, but goddamnit - that just makes her even more suspicious, because it's so obvious that they're _not_) had talked to the people in charge first. Now, _now_ they're talking to crew members - and Nadia?

Well, Nadia's not really cooperating. For one, she doesn't really get _why_ her captain would _ever_ let anything on the ship that wasn't human (because, let's face it, this was a terrible mistake, and they're all probably going to _die_ because of her superiors' decision - but if they all die, she hopes that the people who decided that it was _okay_ to let these things on their ship die first).

"Is there an issue?"

Nadia blinks, tilts her head, and closes her mouth. She crosses her arms over her chest. He raises an eyebrow.

"There's one right in front of me." Gawking and glaring at him hadn't done the trick, for the past thirty seconds, to make sure that he _knew_ he didn't belong on the _human's _ship. But apparently, vocal contact is _necessary_. So she's snapped at him, and she feels a bit better.

But he's still not off her ship.

So that's a problem.

She's glaring at him, and she's not planning on getting along with the aliens any time soon. For one, they shouldn't even _be_ on the damn ship. Two, she _really_ thinks that these aliens are going to be the death of her crew, and three - three: she really _really_ hates the alien in front of her. She really does.

Hitting him seems like a good idea - maybe even stabbing him might do something for the anger bubbling up inside her chest, but she figures that these guys might be able to pack a real punch. No need to test the theory out, though - if it was on a superior officer though, then - hell, she wouldn't be complaining if one of them dropped dead from pissing one of these things off.

She wouldn't make a peep if that happened.

Well, she might _snigger_, but that might be it.

Or, she must just smile.

Because, who needs men and women who get their crew killed?

(She's just guessing that's going to happen, since they're all being inspected like they're soldiers in boot camp, and she has the urge to back talk her way into hell, which doesn't seem that bad right now.)

Zod - she heard him _announce_ his damn self as _General Zod _- is giving her a calculating look She already knows that he's probably thinking of every way he can kill her.

That's okay.

She doesn't really care.

Besides, if she's gonna die here - because of some dumbass captain and his officers - then _fine_, but she's not going to hell without pissing any aliens off first.

_**Nuh-uh.**_

Hell could wait.

First, she has to make sure she knows she's pushing his buttons. And then she can die happy.

Not till then, though.

No way, no how.

The crew - the lower section of it, which is hers, and those who aren't commanders, captains, or commanding officers (damn them) - has been assembled into a few straight lines, and there are armored soldiers that look a lot like humans talking to each crew member, individually, and Nadia just can't believe someone would agree to let - let just _anything_ on their ship when they're trying to find another planet to live on.

Who _does _that?

Oh, right.

Dumbass captains and commanders and commanding officers.

Of course.

"I am the issue?" he sounds amused.

Nadia doesn't really appreciate feeling like her hostile attitude is for laughs.

It's not.

The crew members on her left and right know this, and that's why they're not saying anything. It's probably best, and since they're out to save their own skins - just until the aliens leave (because they can't _stay_, right?) - and then they'll stop being cowards.

"You - and your crew."

Her voice is cold, and her demeanor is stony.

His eyebrows just go higher.

And her anger spikes.

"Why are you on our ship?"

Actually, she wants to be asking her superiors why in the hell they'd even considered it an option, to let these things on the ship, when they didn't even know what the species was called or what it was capable of or -

- these were aliens, for God's sake's!

_Why_ had it even been an option?

Oh, that's right: her superiors were either drunk, or seriously lacking good judgement.

And her crew might be the ones paying for it, if that's the case.

She just hopes they're just checking in, that they're not staying.

Or going to kill them.

Or taking them with them.

She'd really like that not to happen.

She'd like none of those things to happen.

In fact, Nadia just wants him **gone**, but she can't exactly _do_ anything about that, now, _can_ she?

"We've never encountered humans before."

Well, _that's _just what she needs to hear, isn't it?

_Why_ couldn't it have just stayed that way?

Nadia scowls at him. She's _not. happy._

This seems to only amuse him further.

_Damn him._

"You didn't answer my question."

"And why should I?"

"You're _on_ my ship!" she's sneering at him now. She might be shorter than him, but her anger's bigger than the armored alien in front of her is. "Give me a reason as to why you should be."

"Your captain allowed it."

"He's an idiot."

Of course he is. Why anyone else hasn't said it - or realized it - is a mystery to her.

"And so are you."

Oh, _really now?_

She cocks her head to the side. Her eyes are narrowed, into slits, and she's beginning to wonder if hell is worth stabbing him with something - a pen, a knife, a cafeteria spoon - _anything_ would satisfy her need to be rid of this thing.

But she settles for speaking to him in a clipped, chilling tone, one that doesn't seem to affect Zod at all.

And it _bugs_ her, because as an alien, she thinks that he shouldn't even be speaking the same _language_ as her.

All of this - it's ridiculous.

"And how am I an idiot, _General_?"

He _actually _smirks at her.

_Smirks!_

"You're arguing with me."

Really? She's an idiot because -

Killing him doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Maybe hell is worth it if she sees him there.

Yeah.

If she doesn't get out of this alive, that sounds like a really good thought to dwell on before she _does_ go to hell (because, really: she can't convince herself that she really believes in something as good as heaven anymore)

He's giving her a look - a condescending look that makes her blood boil, and then ice over. It's a look that tells her she's lost whatever battle she's hoped she's started (or at least, that's what he thinks).

As far as she's concerned, _the war hasn't even begun._

Nadia is silent for a moment. She's giving him a measured glare, and he seems to think he's won this fight. Maybe he has. But she doesn't know that. She doesn't even know how these things found her, or how they're speaking English, or why her dumbass superiors decided to let them on in the first place - she doesn't even know what they're _called_, and she has a sinking feeling that they might not be going anywhere, any time soon.

Her scowl fades into a sneer. She stands up a little straighter, and waits a few more seconds to speak (her nearest crew members are looking away; they're thinking the alien in front of her might snap her neck - or maybe theirs - and they really don't want any necks being snapped, so they stay quiet, and it's probably best that they are staying silent). Her eyes aren't narrowed anymore.

Instead, they're cold, hard, and they've met his.

Finally, she opens her mouth, and she leans forward a bit, so he knows _exactly_ what she thinks of him, of this while situation, of her commanders and commanding officers and her captain - but, mostly of him:

"_Fuck. You_."

General Zod's smirk just grows after a few seconds, after he gets the gist of what she's just said, and he _smirks at her for it_. He merely shakes his head, and says, "it will be fun, getting to know you, and your race" before he moves on to the next crew member, who's shaking like a leaf. Coward.

Nadia's confident that, since he's apparently not going anywhere, that she'll make sure she puts him through hell before she goes there himself - if it's the last thing she does, of course, it'll be worth it. But, not before she gets to see her superiors drop _dead_ of sheer stupidity.

No, that happens first.

_Then_, she annoys the general.

Yeah.

That sounds like a plan, alright.


	2. Chapter 2

**I wanted to change this into a two-shot. So I did. It's just that... . ZOD. NADIA. BLEH.**

* * *

It's been twelve hours, and the aliens are _still_ on the ship.

The crew (the crew she's a part of is the same crew that her commanding officers and captain and superiors are _not_ a part of, not really) is in the lower bay, where the hanger doors are (the hanger bay is usually deserted, but not this time), sitting around, leaning up against scattered crates of extra supplies, hanging off the catwalks high above the floors (which look more dangerous than they seem) that lead to the memorized mazes of many types of rooms that belong to all sorts of people and all sorts of jobs (genetic engineering gets their only little section, which is usually nice, but it's not because they'd been out of their work-spaces for half a day, and no one wants to sit in the hanger bay and do nothing while the crew's superiors are _chatting_ with aliens), and simply around the floor, muttering to themselves about this whole predicament.

They don't usually do this, but they don't have a choice concerning what they desired locations are - because they're all stuck here till further notice.

The room's huge - it's not too crowded, there's a bit of space between all the people who don't want to be in physical contact with each other, and the fans are on, and the cool air is making being in the room manageable.

But no one is happy about this.

This whole thing is one _hell_ a predicament.

A _bothersome_ situation.

Though the idea of aliens is fascinating (and, annoyingly, _exciting_) for many and doubted by others, everyone now thinks that being the only things in the universe might not be so

Now, even the cowards are glaring up at whoever the captain sent to assure them that the greetings with the aliens is going _fine_, that everything's all friendly. None of them believe them. Though the commanding officers plaster on smiles, but they don't answer any questions, such as:

What _are_ they? Nobody knows, but they _all_ want to know the specie's _name_, at least. That would be nice.

And _maybe_ - just maybe! - _someone_ will explain why they speak _English_. Or why humans can understand the aliens when, realistically, the two races shouldn't be able to understand one another. But they can, and it's just confusing.

Why did they (their superiors) let them (the humanoid aliens) on their (the _humans_') ship? _Where_ was the common sense in that decision? Had it occurred to _anyone_ above 'crew' authority that _these things might be a god damn threat? _Probably not.

_Why_ did they think that was a good idea? It clearly wasn't. Everyone thinks so. And, if the aliens ever leave them alone (alive) they're probably going to elect a new captain and staff of superiors to make better judgement - or just kill them and whoever is most fit for the job can just step in and hope they don't get killed for making one _hell _of a bad choice.

Why don't they trust anyone enough to let them do their duties? There are things unattended that _needed_ to be attended to, and the aliens _are_ probably

How come they _all_ have to be in the main hanger? No one wants to be in there, all together, while their _dumb ass superiors_ chatted

Are the aliens feeling a bit insecure, or are they just as cautious as the humans _should be, _because they know that, if given the chance, a few select members of the crew _will_ do something that the aliens won't like?

Everyone wants to know the answers, but no one's gotten any - they just got a load of excuses.

Nadia doesn't buy the smiles or the excuses. It just doesn't make sense. And, sitting where she is, she can tell, even from a distance, whenever someone comes in, that this whole thing was a terrible idea, and she _knows_ that whoever agreed to this (captain or elected vote of him and his goddamn commanding officers) is going to get strangled (probably) when this is over (_if_ it ends, that is).

It's hardly crossed her mind that it's probably not a good thing that she can't wait to see it when it happens - or, at least, whoever made the decision is going to get seriously crippled for life.

Nope - actually, it makes her feel just a little bit _better_ about this whole thing.

She's one of the crew members who are sitting down on the most-deserted catwalk (almost everyone else, save for her and a few others, prefer the ones on the sides of the room, instead of where she is), up above the main hanger doors. Her hands are grasping the bars hanging up the rail, like how actors prison-movie-posters from the early twenty-first century did, with her legs hanging over the side, her calves swinging back and forth over the edge. She's slouching, and she's kind of chilled (and maybe a bit hungry, because they've had _one meal_ in the last _twelve hours_), but it doesn't really matter, because she's too pissed off to care much about how tired she is, or how long it's been since she's eaten.

The people she's sharing the catwalk with are people like her, who are brooding, angry, and are in a mood to throttle their superiors, but, as it turns out, they're listening to a conversation that's being held below them. Honestly, Nadia doesn't really want to listen, because there are a bunch of brave, brainless _idiots_ below her feet, but the plan they're hatching just gets _better and better _with each visit from a superior, telling them that "you may return to your duties in due time. It won't be much longer now."

The idiots down below want to send a spy, or anyone - it doesn't have to be a sneaky person at all - to simply meander up to wherever the hell the captain and the aliens decided to be and demand to know _what the fuck is going on_.

As of now, she's listening to the start of a debate - they're trying to figure out _who_ they should send up to find the aliens and demand answers for all of this. One of the ship techs is already working on locating the room that they're in (though, she's sure there's not cameras in every public room on the ship, though, the idea is fairly appealing now that they need it in order to locate the bastards), and he's saying that it's not going to take him much longer. There are only a few rooms a lot of aliens and a handful of aliens can comfortably be in, and the crew is _in _one of them.

Someone near her (everyone on her catwalk is spread out) snorts, and she glances to the left, to see a fellow genetic engineer turning up his nose at the people below, obviously sharing the (almost) same opinion with her.

A few more minutes of somewhat calm debate ensues, before people start pointing fingers, and honestly, it would be expected of the crew to instantly _volunteer _themselves for something like this, to have a chance to know what's going, but it seems that no one wants to piss of the captain or the good (she, herself, almost snorts) General Zod.

Well, _she does_.

And that gives her an idea. A stupid one, for the idiots that have been talking about, but it's still an idea.

And, _she might as fucking well announce it_, because someone's going to throw a punch, sooner or later, because the crew's not perfect, and people _do_ hate other people on the ship, and even with aliens on their ship, they still can't get their crap together and work as a team.

"I'll go."

It's silent, now.

It's like she just suggested they mess with the airlock in order to get attention from their captain.

_So much for that idea..._

"_You_?"

Nadia looks down, and sees a woman standing, glaring up at her with her hands on her hips. Some people's faced hold relief within them, others' hold glee, and the rest of them just look skeptical. She couldn't blame them, not really.

"I just said I would."

Why can't they be appreciative of the fact that she's willing to piss of _a lot of people _just to get some answers?

_Why?_

"We don't even know where they are." A man from far off spoke, from one of the other catwalks. She looks over at him, a frown on her face, as she regards the standing man silently. He looks like he wants to go with her, but he hasn't said anything, so she just takes this as a good sign because _someone_ needs to step up and find out _what_ is going on. And since he's not offering any help, she figures that ignoring him is best. So she turns her attention back to the people below her._  
_

"You haven't said a word about doing _shit_ in the last couple of hours!" the woman says loudly. Her voice echoes around the room, and the woman being scrutinized sighs.

Sometimes, she hates the people she works with.

Sometimes.

"Whatever plan you've been discussing will _fail_," Nadia says, matter-of-factly, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "It's just better if someone goes and confronts them."

"And why do you want to do it?"

The woman is treating her like a _fucking suspect_.

Nadia shakes her head, and she slowly drags her legs up onto the catwalk, taking her time to stand up, leaning on the railing with her forearms supporting her weight as she looks down on the woman who looks so content with treating her like she's done something wrong by volunteering.

"Well, I don't see _you_ offering."

The woman blanches, and Nadia sneers.

"_None_ of you are offering. You're all just pointing fingers. That's _not how it works_. It'll be easier if I go. Alone. Without any sort of hindrance."

The woman, a tall, stocky thing that probably belongs in the library a few levels up from the hanger bay. She doesn't belong in this sort of situation.

She's just going to annoy her if she keeps talking.

When no one says anything, she scoffs. "All of you - how can you be suspicious of the one person who's volunteering herself in order to shut you up? Unless _you_'d like to do it, then I suggest you stop _gawking_ and _tell me_ where they all are."

There's silence, for a long, silent minute.

And then, the ship tech speaks, and looks up from the panel in the wall next to the hanger bay doors. He's giving her a long, hard look that tells her she'd better not get killed - or get anyone else killed either.

"They're in the conference hall."

* * *

When Nadia climbs the last step, and arrives in front of the door of the enormous conference hall, she's struggling to calm her heart rate. Jogging through the winding hallways and up the stairs that seem to never end is not something she's unaccustomed to, but at the same time, she wishes that her superiors were a bit smarter with their judgment calls.

For a moment, she hesitates. Is a big entrance required? Should she just open the door? Or should she find the maintenance entrance in the vents that she discovered a few months ago while trying to find something someone dropped among the pipes?

And it's only for a moment, because Nadia is just _sick of this_.

So she presses the button on the wall, having regained her breath, and the door opens, and reveals her superiors and the aliens, standing on opposite sides of the room, with General Zod and Captain Doyle.

As soon as she steps into the room, their voices, loud in the near-empty room go silent, and she can feel anger bubbling up inside of her as her captain looks at her with some vague form of irritation, and then - well, she's lost all respect for the officers standing behind him and the man who's supposed to exercise good judgment for the good of his ship and his crew.

She's never one for orders, and she hates being looked down upon, like she's a fucking nuisance. And, she really hopes that the aliens take over - for a second, at least, she hopes - and kill every single man and woman who is now glaring at her in this room. The alien soldiers (well, at least they _look_ like soldiers) are looking at her with some form of curiosity and amusement.

General Zod just looks mildly surprised.

But it's the _captain _that she's focusing her anger on, and she has decided that she's not going to treat him like he _is _the captain of her ship, because, right now, she wants to see him dead.

Preferable with his neck snapped.

But, instead, she snaps.

"What. The _fuck_. Is _going on?_"

The captain sighs, heavily, as if she's a mosquito that's been buzzing around his head for too long.

"Go back to the hanger, Zwolinksi." People only use her last name when they either forget her profession or if they expect her to do what she's told when she's being spoken to like she's going to follow orders.

Ah... So at least he remembers her last _name_, right?

Nadia's hands are clamped into fists.

"We've been in that hanger for half a _day_ - because either _one_ or all of you _idiots_ decided to let _those_ - " she jabs a finger at the group of aliens while she speaks" - on our ship - "

"This doesn't concern you," the captain says easily, as if he expects her to march away like a good little soldier.

Well, she's _not_.

"Of course it does!" she yells, fully aware of how livid she is, and yet, she doesn't care, not really. She's too angry to give a shit. "I'm a part of the crew! And let me tell you, we don't _want_ these strangers on our ship. How in hell did it occur to you that it was a _good idea_ to let them on our ship?! Tell me how it's good for _any human being on this ship_, and maybe, I'll leave you alone!"

She's aware that she's being studied by the aliens, quite closely, and by her own species, but it doesn't really matter, because the captain is now _looking_ at her like she's worth arguing with - which is a _start_.

"We've found another _life form_." Captain Doyle glares at her. He says this as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "We've established contact. This is history, Zwolinski."

She sputters.

"You - you're a _fucking idiot_." She spits this out, as if it leaves a bad taste in her mouth. "You don't _deserve_ to be a captain of anything if you even _think_ that you can trust _any_ of those things."

Doyle blanches, for a moment, and then his expression hardens.

"That is out of line. Tell me, what is it about these creatures that alarms you? They haven't attacked us. They wish to establish peace - "

"And you _believe them_?"

Nadia scoffs.

But, out of the corner of her eye, before she speaks again, only a heartbeat later, she sees that the general in the room is now _smirking_ again, as if he knows something that she should and everyone else doesn't.

It annoys her, but she brushes it off for the time being.

"I don't see why anyone hasn't snapped your neck yet," she's sneering again, and she takes a step forward. Her fists are shaking with the effort not to go right up to him and land one on his face - because it _would_ serve him right. "You know what's _bothering me about them_, despite the fact that I have superiors who can't tell a good judgement call from a bad one? We don't know what they are, or what they want, or - "

"It is _not you place_ to be concerned about matters like this."

"It is when I **know** I need to get some answers before you decide that they can _live on our ship_."

"Zwolinski - "

"_Shut up_," she hisses. "The crew wants answers, and as their captain, you should have come to us with this decision! You should have informed us of - of _anything that has to do with alien life forms_, because we are your _crew_ and, if I had a knife, or something to stab you with, I would have already."

The captain's face is turning red.

She might be locked in the brig for this, but, again - she doesn't give a shit. She can't when she's this livid - and she can't remember being this angry before. _Ever_.

Nadia opens her mouth to go on, but then the general cuts her off.

He smirks as he speaks.

"We can see your point," he says, and she notices that the aliens are looking from her, to her captain, to the commanding officers (who haven't said a word for her or for him), and then to her again, "and we would be happy to answer your questions."

Nadia's eyebrows shoot up.

"Just like that."

His smirk is mocking, somehow. She can't prove it, but she knows that it is.

It infuriates her.

"Yes," he agrees. "Just like that."

"What _are_ you?"

"Kryptonians." It sounds like it's a punch line to a joke everyone but her knows.

She blanches, despite nothing really being shocking about this, and doesn't recover from her shock right away, like her vocal chords do.

"That doesn't do shit for us!"

His smirk widens.

She doesn't understand what's so amusing about this whole ordeal.

Frankly, it's just bothersome, but she's here, and she has to get answers.

But it doesn't look like he's going to give her any helpful ones."

"I will escort you back to your hanger," he says, "and, on the way, I can answer your questions." Turning to her captain, he asks, "is that alright?"

The captain nods, and he glares at her as she turns on her heel and storms out of the room, hearing the heavy, dull thud of boots follow her. She makes sure she shuts the door on her way out before he can get near it.

It opens as she begins to descend the stairs, and soon, she can feel the tall, bulky presence of the alien - _Kryptonian? _- behind her.

Immediately, as soon as there's a solid landing, she spins around, and points an accusing finger at him (but he's still smirking, which is, to say, alarming (and _that_ is an understatement).

"You're _up_ to something," she hisses. "Don't pretend that you're not."

He shakes his head, and suddenly, there's a bone-crushing hand grasping her wrist, and she's shocked at the sudden pain that floods through her right arm. He doesn't even look like he's trying to hold onto her.

This _thing_ is getting on her nerves.

Well, her last one, most likely.

"Smart human," he murmurs, and she suddenly feels like he's too close. He's not letting go, and it's beginning to make her heart beat faster. "Smarter than your captain."

"Let go," she hisses, and he does, but she's jerked her hand too hard away from his body, so she loses her balance, and nearly falls of her feet - but her reflexes kick in, and her hands grab the railing before she can tumble down another set of stairs.

"What is it that he called you?" he asks her. "I know I have questions to answer, but allow me a few answers of my own, though I already have most of what I need."

Well, _that's _nice to know.

"My name," she sneers. "I don't know if you knew this, but it's a common Earth-thing to have a name belonging to a living thing."

His smirk fades a bit. "Do you take me as a fool?"

His amusement isn't gone yet; he just hasn't been angered enough in order for it to fade completely.

She'll have to do something about it.

"No. And if I answer this, you have to answer my questions."

He nods.

"Nadia Zwolinski."

Zod's smirk widens again, and Nadia glares.

"_What_? Your name isn't normal either, _General_."

Zod chuckles, and starts moving past her.

As if he _knows_ the ship already.

Damn him.

He probably does, and she follows him, seething.

"We'll have fun, you and I," he says, over his shoulder, while she begins to think of ways that she might be able to kill him, as a bad feeling that seems a lot like dread settles at the bottom of her stomach, making her forget that she hasn't eaten in half a day for the time being, "since I'll be staying for a while."

Nadia halts, for a millisecond, before continuing on.

She was going to _kill_ her captain for this.

No doubt about _that_.


End file.
